Thanks for the comments guys. I'll get back to everyone at the end of the report, I promise.
Day 6 (Tuesday)We had a good night's sleep and it was lovely to be able to lie in bed late in the morning not having to drive anywhere. We both agreed we wouldn't move the camper today. Instead, with the aid of the maps I bought we located a high-level walk we could do with the aid of a cable car from the local village in the valley below.
We walked from the campground down into the valley, this being a ski resort in winter there are multiple cable cars heading up the various valley walls. We planned to take one that heads up the mountain above the ski resort and terminates close to a chair lift that then takes you to a point where you can hike along a ridge line in the direction of the high peak of Marmolada, possibly the highest one in the Dolomites. However we learned that the chair lift wouldn't be opening until next week as it was currently the gap between the ski season and the summer season, evident from the huge amounts of maintenance being done everywhere during that small window when the resorts are quiet.
We took the cable car up (those small gondalas in fact). Then proceeded to trek up the dirt road leading to the top chair chair lift station. That was a tiring climb, but the views were worth it:
Sally's ankle was holding up, but painful, so she kept having to rest. The doctor said she should have a stick to help support her when walking, so that was next on the shopping list - should have bought one before we came out really.
At the top cable car station we needed a cool off:
We reached the summit of this particular peak, climbing along the ridge and sat down for a rest and a cup of tea from Sally's flask she takes everywhere - plus a bit of mountain-top yoga - for Sally that is, I don't think my body bends quite well enough for "downward facing dog" yet, more "sideways reclining hippo":
Looking towards Marmolada Sally asked if we should hike any further along the ridge. If the upper cable car had been running then yes, but given I was pretty tired already and we would have to descend considerably to continue along the ridge line, a descent we would have to repeat in reverse on return, and Sally's ankle was playing up, I decided we would turn around at this point - no point injuring ourselves (or specifically Sally) so early in the holiday:
Close up you could see the pink rock:
And the alpine flowers were lovely:
We descended the way we came, and then walked into the main part of the village for a coffee and ice cream, followed by some shopping. Our timing wasn't great since they have a siesta and we had to wait until 3:30 for most of the shops to open. We picked up some local food and a bottle of something strange for a friend's birthday party (I'll cover that later in the report). We also found a souvenir shop that had some cheap trekking poles for sale, so we bought a pair. Sally didn't want both, so I took one and she took one - seemed to really help on the walk back up hill (in the rain) to the campground, especially since my back pack now weighed a ton, partly my fault for buying 2 litres of Italian beer alongside the other groceries.
The heavy rain that swept in confirmed that we chose the right time to descend the mountain. Throughout our stay in the region we would find the weather would deteriorate after lunch, so it was important to get off the mountains early - you wouldn't want to be stuck up a mountain when a lightning storm starts.
Stay tuned for other mountain activities to come...
Steve.
